Improvement in safety derrick-lamps



HIEAMEEEEMAN, 0E PETROLEUM CENTER, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN SAFETY DERRICvK-LAMPS.

specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 126,688, dated May 14, im.

Be it known that I, HIRAM FREEMAN, of

Petroleum Center, county `of Venango, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Safety Derrick-Lamp; and I declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use it, reference being had to the accompanying drawing which-forms a part of this specification. My invention relates to the manner of securing the lid, to the manner of making the wick-tubes, and tothe manner of securing the ends of these tubes, so that, in combination, they form a perfectly safe lamp for use in the oil regions. A

In the drawing, Figure l is a view in crosssection of the lamp, provided with screw-top A, gas-pipe wick-tubes B B, screw-caps G C, and body D. a is a bar for turning the screwtop A. Fig. 2 is another arrangement of the top A.

My invention consists in making the body D ofthe lamp of malleable cast-iron or other malleable metal sufficiently thick to withstand the shock of falling twenty or thirty feet.v I make this of any suitable shape, and provide it at the top with a projecting rim or iiange, which bears a screw upon its inner or outer periphery, into or around which is 4screwed the top A, shown in Figs. l and 2. Near the bottom of this body D are two or more openings,

c c, provided with threaded shoulders, into which the wick-tubes are screwed. These wick-tubes are made of gas-pipe, made small at the torch end and thick at the shank, and at the small end provided with a metal screwcap, C (l. The screw-top A is made very strong, and the threadthat it bears is very large, strong, and accurately turned. A bar or tongue, a, is made on its upper side, as shown in the drawing, by which the top can be screwed down around or into the rim or projection at the top ofthe lampbody. In an oil region the greatest care must be taken tovprovide safe lamps for use about the derricks, where `they-have to be suspended at various heights, and are liable at any moment to` be struck by a shaft, or by the carelessness of a workman be knockeddown or dropped. We therefore form the body as described.

We make the wick-tubes of gaspipe because of its strength, and make them removable, so that tubes with smaller openings may be used when it is desired to have less iiame, by simply removing one and inserting the other in its place. If it is desired to change the wick, a wick may be inserted in a new tube, the old one screwed out and borne safely away, andthe new tube inserted in its place without removing the lamp.

In case the lamp has two or more wicktubes and it is desired to burn but one wick,

the others might be blown out; but the gas escaping from these tubes would be ignited by the flame from the burning wick, unlessy protected. Itherefore provide the cap-screws C C to .cover the tubes not in use.

These items of safety, though small in themselves, are mighty in an oil-region, where the accidental fall of a lamp, or failure to tightly secure the lid, might ignite the ever-present oil, which would communicate instantly with 'the well, and thus destroy, may be, hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property, and, what is not at all unusual from this very cause, many lives. A

I suspend this lamp by a handle fastened to eye-lugs ff.

I know that a lamp has been made for a similar use, but provided with a simple lid, which depends for its safetyon anvarbor and screw; but, in falling even a few feet, the arbor would in all probability be pushed from beneath the lugs by which it is retained, and disastrous results would follow. We do not, therefore, claim, broadly, the malleable-metal body in a derrick-lamp. I know, also, that a screw-lid has been used on a miners cap-lamp, not as a precautionary measure, however, as no disastrous result could follow should the oil spill.

Having, therefore, fully described my inven- ENIGE.A

tlon,what I claim as new, and desire to secure and gaugeable wick-tubes B B and screjwcaps l by Letters Patent, is C G, substantially as described.

1. The safety derriek-lamp, provided with HIRAM FREEMAN. body D, screw-.cap or lid A, and bar a, ears f f, removable and gaugeable Wick-tubes B B, Witnesses: and screw-caps C G, all constructed as and. for S. P. SGHERMERHORN, the purposes herein described. WILLIAM WILSON, 2. In a safety derrick-lamp, the removable S. J. STERNBURG. 

